Author Topic: Goats Milk Yogurt (Read 6528 times)

Crofter · « **on:** April 13, 2011, 08:49:59 am »

Hi all

Just tried something, and it worked, so I thought I'd share it. If you make goats milk yogurt you'll know it is very thin. Katie Thear's book, and others, say add some powdered goats milk to it to thicken it. If you try to find powdered goats milk you'll find it is horrendously expensive, and the powdered skimmed cows milk from the shops does not seem to work as well.
I noticed a thread in this section a day or two ago about making yogurt with eveporated milk so I put two and two together and used one small tin of evaporated milk in a litre of goats milk and made it into yogurt. Result, lovely creamy yogurt for the cost of a small tin of milk (about 45p)

Dave

Skirza · « **Reply #1 on:** April 13, 2011, 10:11:23 am »

Sounds good, definitely one to try. Having said that, I find cheap skimmed milk powder works fine for me, I get thick set yoghurt every time.

Anke · « **Reply #2 on:** April 13, 2011, 09:41:31 pm »

What is a "small" tin of evaporated milk? I have loads of the 410g ones in the house (continental coffee drinker), but that would be nearly half the yoghurt quantity?

Are there smaller ones?

I have also found that slowly draining it through a double muslin layer until you think it's thin/thick enough works, but takes a while....

Just put on the first pot of (goatsmilk) yoghurt for this year...

McRennet · « **Reply #3 on:** April 13, 2011, 10:22:03 pm »

Other tip, add some calcium chloride, sounds horrible I know but increases the yield massively.

Crofter · « **Reply #4 on:** April 15, 2011, 10:11:39 pm »

McRennet, I'll try the calcium chloride, I've got some from when we were struggling to get cheese to set.

Actually we're still not getting a firm curd with the cheese though this may be because the goats are both newly kidded. Wish I knew a bit more about cheese science, it seems to be one of those subjects that you "get by" in or take a degree in!

Anke, it's a 170g tin that I got from the Co-op though I think most shops do the smaller size.

Dave

Skirza · « **Reply #5 on:** April 16, 2011, 08:10:30 am »

Have to admit I am having no problems with setting curd and my goats are newly kidded too ( and the starter must be around a year old sat in the freezer). Have you tried these ppl for your starter, I've never had any trouble with it and if you phone the guy he is a wealth of information and really helpful.

http://home.btconnect.com/gnltd/shop/products.htm

McRennet · « **Reply #6 on:** April 16, 2011, 05:46:14 pm »

I strongly recommend Orchard Valley for your rennet. Perhaps try upping the amount of rennet used or give it a bit longer. It just depends on what you are making. a really good rule of thumb is the floculation test.

I shall try to find a link, or try googling it.

Your starters will get your acidity going so they might be on the slow side if they are old (then again, who isn't!?). Which are you using? Thermophilus acidophilus?
If any of them are freeze dried it is so important to keep them frozen, nip them out of the freezer, take what you need but them get them straight back in again. It DOES make a difference.

McR

Happy cheesing!

Crofter · « **Reply #7 on:** April 19, 2011, 12:27:51 pm »

Hi McRennet

The culture i'm using is a "mixed culture for the production of dairy cheese" from Goat Nutrition Ltd. We make up a litre and freeze it in ice cube trays then use the cubes for cheesemaking.
The rennet is either Goat Nutrition or from Moorlands Cheesemakers Ltd.

I wonder about the starter as I made a soft cheese the other day, put in about 1 tbps starter and half an hour later 6 drops of rennet. Left it overnight as it showed no sign of setting and next day it was still liquid. I added another 20 drops of rennet and it set quite quickly and has made a reasonable soft cheese.
Leaving it overnight I would have expected the starter to have thickened it by morning in a warm kitchen.

I'm off to make a fresh batch of starter!

Dave

McRennet · « **Reply #8 on:** June 20, 2011, 07:08:00 am »

Hello!

I'm just wondering how our starter 'quest' is going? Did the fresh batch make a difference?

McR

Crofter · « **Reply #9 on:** June 20, 2011, 08:39:25 am »

Hi McR

New starter seems to have helped, along with a steady improvement in the milk. Don't know why but gradually,as the weeks have passed, the set has got better and now we are back to fairly easy cheesemaking.
I notice that this lactation the quantity of milk has gone up considerably but the quality (ie: butterfat) seems a lot poorer. Gust, our 4 year old Nanny is giving 8 pints a day (6 last time) and Clary, her daughter, is giving about 5 pints in her first lactation.

We make a hard Goats cheese along the lines of the one in the Rita Ash book and always used to use 9 litres to fill our cheese press. Now using 10 litres and still sometimes having to put in a "spacer" though this too is improving.

We also make a Coulommier style cheese, a Stilton type and a Camembert type.

Hope your studies are going well, it's good to have a resident expert!

Dave